This is one of those issues I get annoyed with conservatives over: "Let's make English the official language of the United States." I strongly disagree. My reasoning is very simple: Do we really need another bureaucracy controlling how and what we speak?
I believe that every person coming to the United States should learn English. I believe they should do this for their own benefit. If I moved to Mexico or Spain, I would want to learn Spanish. If I moved to Japan, I would want to learn Japanese. If I moved to Australia or Great Britain, I'd want to learn as much as I could about the differences in dialect. Why? So that I could succeed as much as possible by communicating as clearly as possible with others. Good communication skills are a major key to success in any culture. Those skills start and end with language.
On the other hand, if we make English the official language of the United States, what will happen? Obviously, we'll need a special department to define what English is and how it must be officially used. How may it be taught in schools? When and how may other languages be taught? It will define rules as to when and where English must be used and have a list of possible exceptions (airport signs, traffic signs near the Mexico border, certain literature, etc.). Then, it will have to start defining penalties for violating those rules. Otherwise, what difference does it make if English is "official or not? I don't want to see any such thing happen.
If someone can show me how we can make English a requirement for learning without the bureaucracy to define the rules and enforce them, I'm not interested in seeing English become "official" in the United states. I believe it is in the best interest of each individual and society as a whole to learn English in the United States. yet, legislating such will certainly come at a higher than intended cost.
I too am against English as the official language of the U.S. but maybe you should do a little more checking into what that would mean. It doesn't mean that other languages couldn't or wouldn't be taught nor does it mean that people would not be allowed to speak any language they want. It mostly has to do with legal issues- documentation and such. It still isn't a good idea, and I agree with many of your statements. My own personal reasons have more to do with the public sentiment it would create and the possibility of it causing a situation that goes against the fourteenth amendment.
I think english should be made the officail language because otherwise there is no incentive for immigrants to learn English. Everything can be printed in their native language so they feel they dont need to learn English. This gets very annoying when trying to talk to them.
Your writing here did not make much sense. First of all, there will not be violations against people if they don't speak English. Will they violate you if you go to Japan and not speak Japanese...no! Also, making it the official language of the US will help the immigrants learn English and will empower them to what? Succeed! You even said that, "good communication skills are a major key to success." You contradicted your own writing. You have to know more about what you're writing about before you start throwing in all of your opinions (before you start writing nonsense like this.)
There is such a thing as personal responsibility. Just because I think a responsible person ought to learn English to succeed does not mean that we should legislate that they learn English. Did you even read my post?
If there will be no penalty for violating the rules on when English must or must not be used, what difference does it make if we make the official language or not? That's like setting a speed limit and then never providing a speed trap. There would be scores of people who just ignored the posted signs. Either the law making English official will have a bureau responsible for dealing with this and enforcing it or it's a meaningless gesture. I don't want to see either happen.
I'm am a conservative and i agree with this article english should NOT be an official language, unless we make spanish an official language along with english.